Quality Living: A Comprehensive Guide to Success || Acharya Prashant (2019)

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Video Information: Advait Learning camp, 28.03.2019, Chandigarh, India

Context:

How to succeed in getting a good quality life?
How to live a quality life?
How to maintain quality of life?

Music Credits: Milind Date
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Category

📚
Learning
Transcript
00:00Acharya ji, how to lead a quality life in this materialistic world?
00:08What should be our aim for success and what should we do for attain higher thing, higher
00:16level in our life, for the source, how do we?
00:22You see we have a concept of success and there are certain things entailed in the concept,
00:38a certain amount of money, a certain social prestige, a certain excellence in one's chosen
00:49field of work and all that comes.
00:58But it is quite possible that all that may be there and one is still discontented.
01:06It is because all that which we have achieved is within our self-defined concept of success.
01:21One has to go beyond it.
01:26Obviously if our concept of success includes four things and all those four things have
01:32been ticked against and still there is dissatisfaction, it means the concept is not quite working.
01:42One has to then go beyond it.
01:47Then one has to aim for something higher than success.
01:56Then one has to ask what is it that matters more than success?
02:04One sees that all the success that one has tried to obtain has been primarily for himself.
02:13You say your educational qualification, you say your love life, you say your son, you
02:20say your profession.
02:22So success is in general defined with the me at the center.
02:31I did this for myself.
02:36I did this for myself and I succeeded.
02:40I did this for myself and I succeeded.
02:43And there are a lot of things that one does for himself and succeeds and is yet not satisfied.
02:52That hints again and again at the failure of the conceptual framework itself.
03:00Maybe one needs actions that are not directed towards the fulfillment of the me.
03:07The me has been greatly fulfilled.
03:14The me has been appeased a lot already.
03:19All that this little me kept demanding has been provided to it.
03:25At least most of what has been demanded has been served and still the me keeps clamoring.
03:35It is still not satisfied.
03:38Maybe the way out is to look beyond the me.
03:45Maybe the way out is to work for a cause that does not include the me.
03:53I did well in my practice, I did well in my love life, I did well in my social interactions,
04:00I did well in my studies, I did well in doing whatever I wanted to do.
04:07Maybe I'm a mountain climber, maybe I'm a deep sea diver.
04:12Whatever I am, I am for myself.
04:15Can I be bigger and broader than that?
04:19Can I be something without being much for myself?
04:25Can my actions be directed towards others?
04:29Can service now enter my life?
04:35There is a lot of success which has been self-centered.
04:41Can I now move on to service?
04:50Service will not probably fulfill this restless I but service would enable you to forget this
05:08restless I.
05:13That is beyondness.
05:15Not quite the fulfillment of the little I but a certain forgetfulness towards the little I.
05:24You say that you are serving a cause bigger than yourself or you are serving others.
05:36Therefore there is no time nor opportunity to keep wondering whether your own demands
05:47have been met.
05:51One is restless, one is restless, one is restless and then one starts dedicating himself to
05:57something bigger, something larger.
06:05And the bigger cause consumes so much attention, time, energy that one is left with no space
06:12to complain or wonder whether one is internally fulfilled.
06:28You say even if I remain unfulfilled, it is a small matter.
06:34I might be happy, I might be sad.
06:40The work I have taken up is bigger than my little happiness and sadness.
06:48It does not quite matter how I am feeling.
06:58I am unfulfilled?
06:59Oh, probably I am but I just forgot that.
07:04This is beyondness.
07:05Am I unfulfilled?
07:09Probably I still am.
07:11But who cares?
07:13I have better things to take care of.
07:15This is fulfillment.
07:17When thoughts of your personal success stop mattering to you, you say there is something
07:25more important than my personal success, then you have really succeeded.
07:33It has to be so big that you forget about your failures, your happiness, your sadness.
07:41Somebody comes and tells you, but you are sad and you say, oh, am I sad?
07:46I just forgot that.
07:48Somebody comes and tells you, you have not had meals since the last 36 hours.
07:53You say, oh, am I hungry?
07:55I just forgot that.
07:56I was so engrossed in something large, in something meaningful that I totally forgot
08:05my personal appetite.
08:08It just vanished.
08:11Not that it does not exist.
08:12Now that you are reminding me that I have not had food, I see that I have not had food.
08:18Now, in fact, I am also feeling hungry.
08:22Now that you have reminded me, I have also started feeling hungry.
08:28But for the last 36 hours, hunger didn't matter.
08:32I didn't even know that I was hungry.
08:35All my attention was dedicated towards something broader, larger.
08:49That has to be there.
08:51And this is the only way out, especially for people who have achieved a certain level of
08:56worldly attainment.
08:59You know, people who have no worldly attainment at all.
09:02They keep saying, but we need to prove ourselves in the world.
09:06We need to get a job.
09:07We need to earn some money.
09:08We need to get a wife.
09:09We need to have a decent family.
09:12And then they keep insisting that this is what would fulfill them.
09:17But then there are those who already have all those things, who already have a certain
09:22level of financial attainment, social attainment, intellectual attainment, familial attainment
09:28and they are still not satisfied.
09:31Then the only thing that can fulfill them is forgetfulness.
09:35When you say others expectations from you, the circle of this
09:47others, the set of this others is very very limited and is me-centric, is it not?
09:56You do not really care about the expectations that let's say the entire humanity has from
10:05you.
10:09It's bitterly cold and a dog is outside your doorsteps.
10:18You do not wonder about the expectations that that dog might be having.
10:23It is only the expectations of a particular four people that matter to you, four people.
10:31And who are these four people?
10:34The ones with whom you have the bond of me-mine-my.
10:41If you have to cater to expectations, then why not cater to the expectations of an entire
10:48nation or the entire world or the entire animal kingdom, entire species are vanishing every
10:55day.
10:56Don't they expect you to help them?
10:59So answer their expectations.

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